rachel smith in for lara today. and what a special surprise we have this morning. there is our american hero. with all his friends, captain gerardo garcia. he's been serving in afghanistan. he's been gone from his family for months. he thinks he's going to give a shoutout to his fellow troops in afghanistan and iraq. there's his family right there. andrea and his three, little kids. he has no idea he's going to be reunited with them this morning. and we cannot wait. >> they can't hear the show right now. >> exactly. >> don't text them. nobody let them know. >> we're going to get to that. >>> we have a lot of breaking news overnight. including, you know, as the crisis in syria escalates, the u.s. is spending patriot missiles and troops to the syrian border with turkey. right now, martha raddatz will be here with more on that. >>> and barbara walters, bringing us her exclusive with the president and first lady. they rarely appear together for an interview. but they did for barbara. we'll hear their message, special message for robin. >>> let's get right to josh ellio